A/N: Thank you so much everybody for your patience! I am very slowly working my way through finishing this story, so thank you for sticking with me through the slower updates. I think this chapter is a lot of fun; I hope you agree :)
He feels weird about it. He's not sure that it's necessarily a bad feeling, it's just... weird. Because nobody has ever known. He's sure Sam has her suspicions, just as he has his own about her, but they've never actually talked about it.
But now Kurt knows.
Not everything. Of course not everything, because as much as he's learning to trust Kurt, as much as he's trying to open up to him, he's not ready for that conversation, but... Kurt knows there's something there. And after the party, he's pretty sure Kurt knows more than he's letting on.
They haven't talked about it. And it's for Sebastian's benefit, he's sure. He knows Kurt knows he doesn't want to talk, and he's thankful Kurt hasn't pushed him for anything more, but just knowing that someone else knows is a feeling that he needs to get used to. It's like this unspoken thing hanging in the air between them, heavy and awkward and he can't help but wonder what's going through Kurt's mind. Does he think less of Sebastian? Think he should have told someone, or that it shouldn't be a big deal after all these years, or that he shouldn't have let it happen in the first place? Because these are all things Sebastian has thought privately to himself, and he hates himself enough for that, but if Kurt thought any of those things, well... he's not sure how he would handle that.
"Seb?"
Kurt's voice pulls him out of his thoughts and back into the present, where he's currently sitting in the passenger seat of Kurt's car. A car that's no longer moving, but is parked in the grocery store parking lot.
"Sorry, what?" he asks, shaking his head a little in an effort to clear his mind.
"Are you coming in, or would you rather sit here alone in the car and freeze?" Kurt asks with a hint of a smirk.
Sebastian smiles back. "As fun as that sounds, I guess I'll go in with you. Someone needs to protect you from the crazy holiday shoppers."
Kurt scoffs a little, but a full smile spreads across his face now. "Please, as if I'm the one who needs protecting in there. You'll probably slow me down."
"Well if you'd rather I can stay out here and freeze," Sebastian offers. "A me-shaped ice sculpture would be a great decoration for a New Year's Eve party."
"We're wasting time, come on," Kurt says as he rolls his eyes, apparently deciding that he's had enough of their back-and-forth as he opens his door and steps out into the cold winter air.
Sebastian steps outside as well, pulling his coat a little tighter around himself in an effort to keep warm as they make their way toward the entrance side by side. They walk through the doors, greeted by a blast of warm air pumping from the overhead vents, and he relaxes instantly, loosening the scarf wrapped tightly around his neck.
"So what do we need?" Sebastian asks, and rather than answering Kurt reaches into a pocket and pulls out a piece of folded paper, unfolding it to reveal a long list of items.
"Everything on this list," he says, handing it to Sebastian as he reaches for a cart.
"Shit, Kurt, why do you need so much stuff? Can't you just get, like, some chips and a fruit tray or something?"
Kurt shoots him a glare. "No, I can't just get chips and a fruit tray or something. You of all people shouldn't be surprised, you know I've seen what your parties are like, right?"
It's the first time it's come up since that night, and it's not even about him, but the spoken reminder that Kurt was there, Kurt was there, is enough to put him back on edge.
"Seb?" Kurt says, voice a little softer, glare replaced with a soft frown.
"That was a family party," he says, trying to shake it off because this is stupid, he can't get all worked up just because Kurt mentioned the party. Nothing even happened at the party. "You haven't seen one of my parties."
Kurt studies him for a moment, like he's trying to decide if he should push further or not. He must decide not to, because a moment later he responds, "Well, from the sounds of it, I don't want to see one of your parties," and then he's pushing the cart further into the store as Sebastian follows behind.
It's strangely fun and oddly domestic, grocery shopping with Kurt. They strike up an efficient system, Sebastian reading out the items on the list one by one as they make their way through the store and fill the cart. He realizes part way through that Kurt has already ordered the list according to where the items will be found, so as not to double back through aisles they've already walked down, and of course he did, Sebastian shouldn't have expected anything less. He also realizes Kurt was probably not kidding in the car, Sebastian likely is slowing him down, their efficient system not quite as efficient as he would like to think, but his boyfriend doesn't seem to mind as they chat happily while making their way down crowded aisles, weaving around small clusters of customers who all seem to have decided a busy grocery store is the ideal place to catch up with one another. By the time they've crossed all the items off Kurt's list and made their way to the checkouts, all the lines are quite long, and they're in for a bit of a wait. One of the times it comes in handy to have a shopping partner, he supposed.
Kurt leads them toward one of the lines, and they take their place at the end, settling in for a bit of a wait.
"I still can't believe you need this much stuff," Sebastian says again, looking at the cart full of food.
"The key to any successful party is good food," Kurt informs him. "It doesn't matter how great everything else is, if the food isn't good, that's all people will remember."
"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration," Sebastian argues, and Kurt quirks an eyebrow at him.
"Have you ever been to an event with bad catering?"
Sebastian thinks for a moment before responding. "One of my cousins got married a few years ago, and the ceremony and reception were beautiful, but the meal tasted like one of those frozen microwave dinners. And not even a good one, it was like one of those off-brand ones that doesn't even have a taste. It was awful, it's the only thing anyone ever...," he trails off, realizing what he's saying as he watches the smirk spread across Kurt's face. "Oh, shut up."
"I didn't say anything," Kurt says smugly, grinning widely now as Sebastian pouts back at him.
"You're thinking it."
"I am," Kurt agrees, not even trying to deny it, and of course why would he?
Sebastian can't help the laugh that bubbles out of him, and then Kurt laughs, too. "Fine, you're right. The food is important."
"Could you say that again?" Kurt hedges.
"That the food is important?" Sebastian asks.
"No, the first part," Kurt says with a sly grin.
"Shut up," Sebastian says with another laugh, smacking him lightly in the arm.
"You really had to invite him?" Sebastian asks, propped up against the headboard of Kurt's bed as his boyfriend sits at his vanity and finishes styling his hair.
"Yes, Seb, I couldn't not invite him," Kurt responds, and Sebastian can hear the tinge of annoyance in his voice, so he stops himself from pressing further. They've talked about this, and even if he may have his own thoughts on the matter, he needs to let Kurt handle things the way he wants to handle things.
"Okay," he says simply, then shuts up before he can say something he'll regret.
Kurt pauses, turns to give Sebastian a curious look for a moment before turning back to his mirror.
"I think I'm done," Kurt says, running his fingers along the hair swopping upward at his forehead a final time before he stands.
"I think you were done about twenty minutes ago," Sebastian says, pushing himself up off the headboard and swinging his feet down onto the floor.
Kurt shoots him an incredulous look, then walks over and takes a seat next to him on the bed. "Perfection takes time," he says, hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, and god that mouth.
"Mhmm," Sebastian hums, and then he's threading his fingers into the back of Kurt's hair – all the hair product be damned – and pulling him forward into a kiss.
Kurt sighs into it, relaxes against Sebastian's lips, one hand finding its way to Sebastian's neck and the other resting on his bicep. Sebastian snakes his other arm around Kurt's waist, twisting a little and pulling Kurt's body closer as they kiss slowly, lazily, exploring the taste and feel of each other with lips and teeth and tongues. He's not sure how long they're there, perched on the side of Kurt's bed twined together like this, but suddenly a gruff cough is interrupting them, and they're pulling apart quickly, blushing just a bit in embarrassment as they look toward the open doorway where Burt is standing.
"You, uh, gonna come greet your guests, Kurt?" Burt asks, raising his eyebrows at his son.
"Oh, um yes, sorry, I– we'll be right down," Kurt says, cheeks adorably crimson.
"Alright, good," Burt replies, gives Sebastian a small nod, then disappears from the doorway.
"If you messed up my hair," Kurt mutters, standing and making his way back toward his vanity.
"Your hair is fine, don't worry," Sebastian says with a roll of his eyes, though truth be told he can't help but find it a bit endearing.
Kurt leans down to look at himself in the mirror, smoothing his hands over his carefully styled hair, then straightening up a moment later when he's apparently decided it's sufficiently un-mussed.
"Come on," he says, offering a hand to Sebastian, "let's go see who's here."
Sebastian takes hold of the offered hand, and Kurt gives his hand a small squeeze before they make their way downstairs together.
He's loath to admit it, but Kurt is right; the food does make the party. His boyfriend put a lot of effort into the appetizers for the night, and it's clearly paid off, the kitchen and living room filled with friends talking and eating.
Well, mostly friends.
He's made a point to avoid Blaine the whole night; not that it's been hard, he's pretty certain Blaine has been keeping his distance from Sebastian, too. It's not so much that Sebastian would mind talking to the other boy – he has a lot of things he wouldn't mind saying to Blaine Anderson. But, he knows Kurt doesn't want that, and sometimes when you're in a relationship you need to put your partner's wants and needs above your own; something Sebastian is trying to work on, something he wants to work on. For Kurt.
"How are you doing?" Kurt asks, sliding up next to Sebastian and leaning against the wall beside him.
"Good," Sebastian says, turning to look at Kurt with a smile. "Are you having fun?"
"I am," Kurt nods, then tips his head to the side questioningly. "Can you come with me for a minute?"
"Yeah, sure. You need help with something?" Sebastian asks, pushing off the wall and following Kurt as he leads them back through the house.
They head up the stairs, down the hall to Kurt's room; Kurt pushes the door open, takes a step inside and looks back at Sebastian expectantly. Sebastian follows him in, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him; a rule of Burt's, unfortunately.
"Is something wrong?" he asks, a little worried now, running through the night's events so far and trying to figure out why Kurt might want to talk to him privately.
"No, no everything's fine," Kurt says, smiling a little shyly, and the corners of Sebastian's mouth turn down in a small frown because now he's even more confused.
"Oh. So... what is it?"
Kurt blushes a little, but he holds Sebastian's gaze. "It's almost midnight," he starts, "and I guess I kind of wanted you all to myself for that."
"Oh," Sebastian says simply.
He's done his fair share of kissing boys on New Years' Eves past, but they've always been sloppy and drunk and usually with the intention of leading to much more, so it wasn't something that had really been on his radar, not really. But now his boyfriend is standing before him, blushing a beautiful shade of pink as he looks at him hopefully, eyes sparkling.
"That sounds good," Sebastian adds, reaching out and grabbing hold of Kurt's hips, pulling him gently closer until their bodies are flush.
Kurt wraps his arms loosely around Sebastian's neck and smiles up at him. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Sebastian confirms.
They hear muffled voices from downstairs then, counting down from ten toward the new year, and Sebastian smirks down at his boyfriend. "Your friends are loud."
Kurt lets out a small huff of laughter. "They are, aren't they?"
"Five, four, three, two, one," Kurt whispers along with the voices downstairs, and after the last word Sebastian tips his head down, closing the distance between Kurt's lips and his own with a gentle kiss.
Kurt pushes up into it, and Sebastian feels his body shift as he stands up on his toes. He grips Kurt's hips tighter, holding him close as he feels Kurt's fingers threading into the hair on the back of his head to hold him there in the kiss.
They stay like that for a few moments, until finally Kurt pulls back. "We should probably go back down there," he says, cheeks flushed red.
"I'm sure they wouldn't miss us if we stayed up here a little longer," Sebastian counters with a smirk, then leans back down to kiss his boyfriend again.